A friend of mine who was not treated well by life received this altered book made by me. It is filled with positive quotes, soothing colors and beautiful fotos. The glass on the cover contains lavender buds and a stripe with the quote "Have the courage to live, everybody can die".

The heart sitting in the niche was placed into a tiny piece of a sprig of thyme she had brought me as a gift some time ago. She sure was pleased with this present since she saw that it was made especially for her. Now I think I will have to make a book for myself - so far I gave each and every one away.

These days I feel as if we were more travelling than staying at home. Our latest journey took us to Scandinavia, to Norway to be exact. I absolutely love that country - the landscape as well as the cities. Only being creative is a bit of an impossibility - doing a travel journal is the best there is.

Es gefällt mir sehr gut, daß die zugrunde liegende Schrift des Originalbuches quasi noch eine Ebene mehr bietet, die unter der Farbe und dem eigenen Text manchmal zu sehen ist.
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For the next lessons of Dale Anne's "positive thinking everyday" class I had to make a new journal. This is an altered book - I liked the cover with it`s marbled paper so much that I only changed the spine and added the blossom and ribbons.

The text of the original book can bee seen under the added paint and journaling, giving it an additional layer that looks a little mystical.

I did it. I made myself a bag. For me this is somewhat a surprise - so far I had not inclination to make myself a bag. However, my latest quilting project left me with several pieces of fabric and suddenly I just wanted to make something other than a quilt. What better to do than sew a bag? An issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors "Gift" had an instruction, and with several alterations this is the result.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Das erste Journal ist voll! Seit Beginn des Jahres arbeite ich daran - es ist das Ergebnis eines Workshops mit Dale Anne Potter "Positive Thinking Everyday". Dieser Kurs dauert ein ganzes Jahr, so daß ich nun mit einem zweiten Journal anfangen darf.
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The first journal is completed. I have been working in it since the beginning of the year. It is the result of a workshop with Dale Anne Potter "Positive Thinking Everyday". This workshop consists of a whole year so that I will have to start my second journal now.

Traveling in April is taking risks. We had everything from dazzling sun to pouring rain and loads of snow. Sometimes that was allright - as in the Dolomites.

Sometimes it was a plain nuisance as in Tuscany where when we entered a small restaurant to drink a cup of espresso the first thing they brought us were - guest towels. Nevertheless the journey was very interesting with lots of inspiration and new experiences.

This is my Vision Card for March. It should help me to slow down. The first two months have me kind of hyperventilating a little. What with my job, journeys, sports, workshops and my own creative work it suddenly is too much. I just have to realize that I cannot follow every interesting link, cannot participate in every workshop. But I have the feeling that time is running......

Finally it all starts coming together. The positive thinking group (art journaling), the tips from the Creative Explorers' Club and the lettering class all contribute to this spread. It really was time to use all those different techniques I have been learning the last months.

Venice - a place to dream of, isn't it? I have been enthralled by its spell and really hope to return there one day soon. Most of all I dream of being in Venice during winter when there aren't as many people about. I suppose in winter the athmosphere of the city's slow decay will be more acute. These crumbling palaces really are something I adore.
This certainly would have been a spread to use a map as part of the background as shown in Jill Berry' blog, but I didn't think of it soon enough. There is a map of Venice in my collection somewhere exactly for that sort of purpose - I only have to find it...

Looking at this I can hardly believe that I carved the stamp myself. It doesn't look really sharp which is the result of stamping on a very irregular and coarse watercolor paper. The image looks a little distressed which is exactly what I had intended for this project.

These are the Chevron stamps I made. Unfortunately the stamped image isn't really clear. Making you own stamps is really addictive - the possibilities are endless. At present I am carving an alphabeth (only large fonts and numbers to begin with). But I will have to carve small fonts, too....

There were no posts these last months - not that there wasn't a lot going on. I joined Dale Anne Potter's group "positive thinking everyday", am a member of the "Creative Expolorer's Club" of Linda Matthews and I am learning to carve my own stamps with Julie Fei van Balzer. Plus I am busily sewing the first quilt that will finally be for myself. Did I mention that I try to work out how to use Photoshop as well?
Linda Matthews introduced me to the idea of "vision cards" and I am trying to work with them which is a whole new world for me. Especially when dealing with more abstract concepts this prooves to be quite difficult. For 2012 I decided on "commit" which in this connections means that I want to commit myself to my artistic development.

No idea how this could happen, but I haven't been blogging for months. This must be a case of life getting the better of me. There is nearly a month gone from this year and I hardly dare to wish you all a good and healthy 2012. But is is never too late for good wishes. As well as for good intentions - I will be blogging more regularly from now on - promise!

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van Balzer

About Me

I am a textile artist creating mainly art quilts and dabbling in mixed media technique.
Besides I am mother of three adorable grown up kids and happily married to a mathematician. My Chinese sign of the zodiac is the dragon, hence the name dragonquilts for this blog.